World map

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Physical world map (2004) with country borders and capitals—click for large, 1.7 MB version

1 Projections
2 Gallery
3 Geographic world map
4 Political world map
5 See also
- 5.1 Projections
6 External links

[edit] Projections

Main article: Map projection

Maps that depict the surface of the Earth use a projection, a way of translating the three-dimensional real surface of the geoid to a two-dimensional picture. Perhaps the best-known world-map projection is the Mercator Projection, originally designed as a form of nautical chart.

Airplane pilots use aeronautical charts based on a Lambert conformal conic projection, in which a cone is laid over the section of the earth to be mapped. The cone intersects the sphere (the earth) at one or two parallels which are chosen as standard lines. This allows the pilots to plot a great-circle route approximation on a flat, two-dimensional chart.

[edit] Gallery

Dymaxion projection	Elevation map	Mercator projection	Topographical map of the world
A reversed map, challenging the tradition of north as "up"	A blank political map of the world	World map according to Posidonius (150-130 B.C.)	A World map produced in Amsterdam 1689.
A simple political map of the World as of 2003.